Monday 19 December 2011

Updated and latest on CDCL

Div Cup results updated (29 Nov. to include Div 1) + Div Cup results for 13 December also added.

NOTE: The KO Cup draw for the Coventry and District Chess League is as follows:

Rug C v Cov A; Cov C v Cov B; Cov F v Cov D; Cov E v Rug B; Nun B v Cov G

Matches to be played on 03.01.2012 (From Cov Club site)

Wednesday 14 December 2011

LEAGUE RESULTS ARE HERE ...

Well things have been tough without some of our best players, so its not entirely unexpected. But Rugby players please fortify yourselves before looking at the league table (up to 7 Dec) now posted on the CDCL site.

Other tables now also updated:  See League and Div Cup recaps to figure out how it all happened.

On the plus side, plenty of chess books and chess practice time coming our way?  Every match will count in 2012 ...

Have a nice break and please note that we have a juniors chess event on the 22 Dec in Rugby Art Gallery and Museum. You will be very welcome to join us.

Chris

Thursday 24 November 2011

A losing battle vagainst Dave Kearney

Another battle with Dave Kearney, this time I didn't escape with a draw !

Friday 4 November 2011

A good draw against tough opposition

Due to pressure from Bob, here is my game against Mark Page. I hope it shows how to rebuff attacks and take the initiative in the center.



I was very pleased with the way I played in this game as the last time we played (again I had the white pieces) I got demolished in about 15 or so moves.

Please feel free to post comments on what you think. Criticism welcomed.

Another struggle from a few years ago

A fortunate win for Black in the following game a few years ago.

Another old Cov League game

Here is another old game which seesawed eventually ended as a draw....

Wednesday 2 November 2011

G'day folks !

I am downunder trying to publish an old game I played against Tony Green of Nuneaton. Here goes !

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Results from the B & D teams @ Coventry (18 Oct)

From Nigel: Div 1.


 
Cov 'A' 2.5 beat Rugby 'B' 1.5
  1. M. Page drew with Nalin Kadodwaia
  2. D Ireland beat Simon Turner
  3. P Wood beat Nigel Malka
  4. D Filer lost to Paul Hardstaff

From Chris: Div 3.


Cov 'F' 2.5 beat Rugby 'D' 1.5 (some consistency there!)
  1. Rajan Parek drew with Jim MacDonald (that Coventry junior gets stronger and stronger)
  2. M Parek (Rajan's dad) lost to Roy Talbot (long determined game by Roy who rightly rejected an earlier offer of a draw)
  3. Clive Osman won against Chris Pegler
  4. won against Joe Oswell
CDCL 11 Oct results received last night so they will be posted soon.

 

Monday 17 October 2011

Another of my favourites games !

Here is another of my favourite games, this time time by the ultra cautious Tigran Petrosian - World Champion in the 1960's and a pretty much misunderstood player.
Here he conjures up a mate from nothing dragging the King out into the open by a Queen sacrifice and cutting off the monarchs retreat to safety - forcing resignation from a world class player.



Sunday 16 October 2011

Some changes to University teams and match location ....

From Bob's recent email: Note that the University have added a team to play in Division 2 (position 5 in the table) and called it University E. So - more games in Div 2. (I have not updated the tables attached to this blog yet but will do so shortly).

Also note that the University have changed their chess location.

It is now in Rooms 4 and 5 of the Students Union HQ. To get there find the Costcutter supermarket on the site and it is up the stairs to the RHS.

Chris's note: As you would expect from a Student Union location this is much nearer to the bar :-)

A marvellous book

I don't read many chess books these days - they can be a bit deep and dull at times but I read an absolutely brilliant one recently called 'The Immortal Game'.

You can find it in Rugby Library by David Shenk and is a very lively portrait of chess and its changes from its Middle East origins to the effects of computers on the game today. It has quite a lot on the effects of chess on people like Napoleon, Fischer, Benjamin Franklin and others but also has some great stuff on how - used wisely - it can help the education and learning of young people using some pioneering approaches in New York.

It has one or two of the great games of chess history so I will add below one of my favourites - the game between Rotlevi and Rubinstein in 1907. Its just a masterpiece !

Tuesday 11 October 2011

4th October results (League Matches)

Are you looking at the new CDCL site yet? Its got the results from 4th Oct matches up. DIRECT LINK.

A, B and D all drew last week with C securing a win. So far so good and steady.

A pretty ancient game

I was wondering about putting an old game or two on the blog when up popped Mike Donnelly (regular player for Coventry until about 3 years ago) and he gave me this link to a game we played in 1996.

All the notes are his and they show his pretty strong commitment to trying to uncover the 'truth' behind the games he played. He is as far as I know still a very strong postal player.

Have a look at it and see if you think his analysis reflects the battle accurately.

http://chesspagesofmikedonnelly.co.uk/DrMJDonnelly/new/donnellywildig.htm

Saturday 8 October 2011

Draws all around? Divisional Cup (Nuneaton vs Rugby) and Rugby D vs. Coventry G

The scores for the Divisional Cup games on 27 Sept have been posted to the CDCL site and were:


Which works out as a draw. More recently Rugby D in its first league game of the season also delivered a 2:2 match result with Nicola in her first league game compounding on her success in the Divisional Cup match with another win and Chris surprising Ravi Sian (and herself), with a win. Roy and Jim did not fare so well so Rugby D drew wuth Coventry G on this occasion with the efforts from the women of Rugby came in real handy. (Yes, more than one female player now - take note!)

Any news from the other teams? Phill has posted for Rugby C (some excellent reports). Would be nice to see some others too. And perhaps even some games?

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Tables turned at Newdigate

The season for Rugby C started last week with a visit to Newdigate for a division 2 cup match. John Hall had a very quick game that ended in a draw. Jamie Kearney, playing his first match for Rugby C on board 4, was next to finish with a win. Malcolm Harding’s game ended with a loss. So scores were even 1.5:1.5 with Shola still playing in the last (very long) game. Although slightly ahead on points, a slip let his opponent give check with a pawn while at the same time threatening a rook on the back rank. The rook was lost, the pawn was Queened and the game was over :-(. Newdigate won the match 2.5:1.5.

The team returned to Newdigate tonight for the first league game. This time Simon Turner was playing board one and quickly got the team off to a good start with a win. Jamie Kearney playing against the same opponent as last week had a longer game but confidently finished with another win. John Hall was next to finish, unfortunately on the losing end of a good match. So once again the final result was down to Shola, playing another very long game against last week’s opponent, but this time, in a tense finish, Shola got his revenge :-). Rugby won the match 3:1

Sunday 2 October 2011

Divisional 3 cup success for junior team !

Our junior team did well in their first ever match in the Coventry chess league (Divisional 3 cup) last Tuesday. Following some practice on Monday night they held a useful Coventry G team to a 2-2 draw!
Read about it on the junior blog :
http://rugbyjuniorchess.blogspot.com

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Design done for now ... feedback required

I took some photos at the club on Monday and then - because photography is not a strength of mine - I doctored them so that they could be used in the background. So what you see is our very own chess sets, clocks and hands. In fact you may recognise some of those hands.

Let me know if its too arty, too dull, or too strange. Also let me know if there is anything missing here from the site now its changed.

Well ... we are ready for business (as it were). Hope everyone has some games to share this season [hint]. Good luck to all teams (we'll try not to miss Andrew too much).

Chris

Monday 19 September 2011

Something looks different about this site ...

Well lots of things look different and although the appearance will change again when I get a mo (more us and less corporate!) the tabs along the top are a key change. You can access information about the two leagues and other useful information there.

Can I draw your attention in particular to the League documents under 'Cov League' including the one which is cutomised just for Rugby. It lists which team is where and when - go to COV LEAGUE for the link or directly to http://tinyurl.com/3v6kaj2

Yes, you can print this out and carry it around with you :-)

Best of luck everyone. And please post news here (getting bored of the sound of my own voice!) Likewise if there are links that should be added then let me know.

Chris

Thursday 15 September 2011

New Season off to great start (Leamington League results)

The new season has already started for some. John Hall has reported great news of the first match in the Leamington League. A win against Stratford which was quite a test of the team's stamina.

Jim Macdonald won first on Board 3, followed by Nigel Malka on Board one. John was playing the son of the Board 3 player on Board 2.
After a long struggle the game was won at 10.20pm, so the overall result was 3-0.

Congratulations on a great start.

Saturday 3 September 2011

Upcoming Rapidplay tournaments

I have flyers for 2 external tournaments:

1. Sunday 11th September at Leamington Spa, organised by the Leamington & District Chess League. Closing date for entries is 10th Sept.

2. Sunday 23rd October at Quinton, in Birmingham. Organised by the Birmingham & District chess league, the closing date for entries is 17th Oct.

Give me a call on 07816056868 if you require further details. Otherwise the flyers will be left in the chess equipment storeroom from Mon 5th Sept.

Jim

Wednesday 27 July 2011

New Gradings Out Now

Hello everybody, I hope you have been having an enjoyable summer, and that my news will bring further enjoyment as the fruits of your labour are now available in electronic format.
I have incluced the link for rugby club players specifically on the database, but if you want to check out any other players ratings then just go to the home page (I am sure many people will already know of the grading database anyway)

ECF grades for 'Rugby' chess club players

P.S. For those interested, I got a new rating of 195 which I am quite pleased with as it is my highest ever!

***********************************************************************
Thanks Tyrannosauruschex for the link. I’ve added to your post (above) using my super-moderator powers to create a table which takes out a couple that aren't (as far as I am aware) players for Rugby (Murray David of Checkmates and Russell James of Widnes). I’ve kept in James who was with us last season the by the looks of things is playing for several down south clubs.

Sunday 5 June 2011

Making a date for the next AGM

need to decide on an AGM date to talk about teams and stuff.

The proposed dates are 27th June and 11th July. Those members we have emails for will have received an invite from Chris via Meet-o-matic (silly name but cool system). Here is the same link.

Tick the box for the date that suits you and in the comments box tell us whether you would be interested in a swiss tournament that night, and whether a 7.30pm start is okay for you.

If you have comments on using this system for setting meetings leave these below or email to Chris. You do not need to login, or download, so just press the link - unless you have already done that.

Thanks

Wednesday 27 April 2011

The first team won the cup v Nuneaton A !

Last week the first team won the Coventry league cup beating Nuneaton A 2.5 to 1.5 in the final. Jonathan, Nalin and Bob all drew and john Naylor won his game on top board against Andrew Patterson.

Although not very exciting here is Bobs game against John Collins. (But there was a good move by John at the end of the game).


Thursday 14 April 2011

games

Does anybody know how to get a diagram of a chess board on here? was hoping to put some games up as i have spare time but have forgotten how to do it!

Sunday 10 April 2011

Last Friday's social

A thoroughly enjoyable evening, with the topics of conversation ranging from the latest trends in chess openings (see below the finishing touches being made to the Wildig-Cox defence!) to the politics behind playing the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. It was great to see everyone, and I think we can now recommend the Bengal curry house in Church Street for a great after-pub meal.

Friday 8 April 2011

Individual Lightning Tournament: Leamington League

From Jim Macdonald news of a Leamington League event on 20th April.

The Blossomfield Club, The Wardens, Widney Lane, Solihull B91 3JY

Open and U140 sections.

Starts 7.30. Register by 7.15,
£1.00 per entry
All entry fees returned as prizes
9-round swiss tournament
5 mins each per game

Normal [Leamington] lightning rules apply. (Which for Leamington is ALL moves in 5 mins. Coventry is 10 sec moves). Thanks to Mike Johnson for pointing out.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Strangers in our midst ... !!

Well not exactly strangers (tho perhaps strange?). Two past (no longer playing) Warwick University webmasters have asked to be able to post to this blog and Bob and I (being generous sorts) have said Yes. As long as they are not too rowdy.

So Tyrannosaurus Chex is Joey Stewart and Michael Smith may be appearing in some guise shortly. Who he? He who said this about us on the WU chess site.

If anyone from Rugby CC wants another go at becoming a member of this blog - so that you too can write facetious comments about Nalin drop me an email. The more of you, the less work for me :-)

Chris

Saturday 2 April 2011

Social evening Friday 8th April

Does anyone fancy the idea of celebrating the end of our (moderately!) successful season by going on an evening out? The plan is to meet up at The Merchants next Friday at 8pm and then after a couple of hours those that want to can go on for a curry. It'll be a good opportunity to meet up with everyone else in the club who we don't normally see because they're in another team.

See you there!

Andrew

Sunday 27 March 2011

A narrow escape for Mark Page

Friday 25 March 2011

John Hall's game - at last

I extracted the notation from John some weeks back, but have only just managed to get it up. (Note to self, when offering to put up games I should check how long they are first!). Thanks for parting with this one John. I really enjoyed the ending. :-) [And John is now shown as playing WHITE!]




IF YOU CANNOT SEE THIS then click on the button [View PGN] and either read through the game there (if you are that way inclined). Or copy the PGN notation there (all of it), go to the caissa website and select the [Import PGN file] option, paste the PGN there and click to confirm that you want to [Import]. You will see John's game (finally) and be able to click through. This is a temporary fix but should help whenever you cannot see the game properly on this site.

Thursday 24 March 2011

The cup - Tuesday 22 March

Well the A team had a good time with a 4-0 win v Nuneaton B.
I believe the D team lost by a similar score to Nuneaton A - ok but you were playing a top team.
But I've heard that the C team drew 2-2 with Coventry A and won with the handicap - well done guys ! Lets hear more about it !!

What happened to the B team ??

Just to balance the previous post a bit let me add the following game from our match where I managed to beat someone I normally lose to ...

Devon Loch

Well for you younger guys you may wonder what the heading means. It was the Queen Mothers horse which in 1953 was romping home to win the Grand National only for some unaccountable reason to fall flat on its belly and lose the race. With respect to my opponent there are some parallels to that in this game. (It wasn't a bad mistake that I made was it ?..... - it was just that Mark was more awake than I was !)

Wednesday 23 March 2011

What happened next ?

Here is a game from earlier on in the year. I was playing white and played c4 and offered a draw (which was accepted). Was there a better move?


Tuesday 15 March 2011

League final positions

Herewith the league final positions for 2010-11.
There is no significance to the lines in the table - its just that I am on a voyage of discovery about this type of publishing.

Anyway I think that congratulations are due to Nuneaton who could scarcely have done better - position wise - in the final mix.

Well done to them on behalf of the league!

Sunday 13 March 2011

An ancient game !

We've been having a big sort out in our house and I discovered the following game which I played in the days when I knew how the pieces moved.
It ticks most of the right boxes, Short, nearly get checkmated, but instead give checkmate with a Queen sacrifice. At least it made up for a few games where Peter mercilessly mashed me up in a positional grind.
Enjoy (as they say).

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Advice please

Last night I was left in no doubt that the move that I made after this was a really really naff choice. Thank you to those chess commentators from Coventry who brought me to recognise quite how foolish I had been. :-) I now know what not to do. Opinion was divided on what it would have been best for me to do. So if you have a mo and would like to comment then share ideas I'm in listening mode.



Also tell me whether you like this puzzle idea so I can work out an easy way to do it and share that with you. (Thanks to John Hall for allowing me to wrestle his game sheet from him. That one is a long game as it will appear in a couple of days).

Chris

PS. Some match scores would be nice.

Sunday 20 February 2011

Three hours of chess and it ends in a draw !

Here's my game from last Tuesday in Nuneaton. Mine was the last game to finish, which meant I ended up with what seemed like loads of people looking over my shoulder. The general consensus (amongst the slightly partisan crowd, it seemed to be) was that I was lucky to get the draw against their player. In the end I had about 4 minutes remaining and my opponent had less than 1.

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Does anyone know the results from last Tuesday?

Thursday 3 February 2011

Coventry and District Chess League - LATEST!!

In case you were curious this is what the CDCL tables looks like at the mo. (Hot off Bob's press).




Its not easy to add a table to Blogger - or at least I've never managed to get one to work. So shortly there will be a post on how to make a table into an image using Powerpoint. As the one above is. (Now Bob will know all my secrets :-)).

Chris

Sunday 30 January 2011

The things people say about us ...

Rugby - that place just up the road (or the railway line) where someone once had the idea of picking up a football and trying to run away with it, and everyone else decided this was cheating and piled into him. Theirs is a bit more interesting (and a bit more eccentric) than most chess club websites, which is pretty much what you'd expect from Rugby - they're a lovely bunch of guys but they're nutters the lot of them. They must be as they think Nalin is some kind of deity, a supposition which is clearly refuted by his 0/4 record against me.

Now who said that? Warwick University Chess Club that's who. (Here is a video that I found just for them). I would expect Nalin to be the star of any video that we made :-)

Chris

Thursday 27 January 2011

Can you see Bob's game more clearly now?

I have no idea why Bob's game looks odd on my machine - and it may just be my machine? So, if the game below does not display in your machine but this one (same game) does then let me know please. (Might actually get me to an answer).



Fingers crossed.

Chris

A couple of wins for the A team

A couple of wins for the A team means that we are finally above 50 percent (9 points from 8 games) I think.

However it was not helped by this fairly ordinary effort on board 2 where Black 3 times helped out White !

But by all means have a laugh !

Tuesday 18 January 2011

D Draws against Uni D

Won two out of our matches to draw against University D (who previously beat us on our home turf). Team was Roy, Ralph, Chris and Joe.

Chris has put her game below because she is so surprised she managed to pull off this escape from what seemed inevitable (and deserved) defeat. Comments appreciated.

Wednesday 12 January 2011

D Did it again ...

Well not quite so impressive as winning against the top of Div 2 last week (did we mention that?), but its nice to win two matches in a row. We won't let it go to our heads.

Score was 3-1 and my game took longest of all - very unsusual that and a curious see-saw going on with that one. We both gave up on noting moves by the end and I once again regretted my lack of endgame skill.

Not sure what the results for Rugby B vs. Rugby C were. But I confidently predict that Rugby won. Or at least drew. :-)

Now how did are the A team doing?

Chris

Saturday 8 January 2011

More cup results

Well done D team - thats a very good result!

The A team beat Cov Div 3 team 1 4-0 overcoming their handicap advantage of 2.5 points.

The B team drew 2-2 with another Div 2 side and the belief was they had won on board count.

Wednesday 5 January 2011

A triumph for Rugby D!

Hot off the press from Team Captain Jim, this message:

'We beat Nuneaton C (Div 2): 2.5 to 1.5

With our handicap (+1.25), we actually won 3.75 to 1.5'

Playing this time were Jim, Roy, Ralph and Joe (not sure of board order or individual results.

Well done guys. This only shows that I should not play more often.

Chris

Saturday 1 January 2011

Rugby Chess Club has moved location

Rugby chess club has moved location and in future all Coventry league and
Leamington league matches will be played at its new venue below.

The Rugby Workers Club, 32 Oliver Street, Rugby CV21 2ET.


For a map of the venue go to http://maps.google.co.uk/ and type in "Rugby near CV21 2ET" .

The club is located on Oliver Street next to Parnell Close - (see ariel image below). Parking is available on the clubs premises by turning down Parnell Close and turning left.


If you are coming to Rugby from the south or southwest you can get to this venue more easily on a new road which leaves the A4071 to bypass the town and then come in by turning right onto the A428 at a major new set of traffic lights. (This is the green route shown on the google map which you see by dragging to the right)